Description of the a new species of Asca Heyden (Acari: Ascidae), from Mato Grosso, northwestern Brazil

ABSTRACT

The genus Asca Heyden is the most numerous of the family Ascidae Voigts & Oudemans (Mesostigmata), comprising 148 valid species. A new species of this genus, Asca mariae n. sp., is here described based on adult females and males collected from litter of banana plantations at Sinop, Mato Grosso state, northwestern Brazil. It differs from Asca craneae De Leon by having 17 pairs of setae on the podonotal shield. It also differs from Asca craneta De Leon by having ad2 and pd2 of tarsus IV only slightly curved and Asca hexaspinosa Karg by having podonotal and opisthonotal shields distinctly reticulate. This is the first description of an Asca species from Brazil.

http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:A771490F-1662-4352-9E63-D0C300B43F42

KEYWORDS:

• Taxonomy
• edaphic mite
• Mesostigmata

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the Brazilian Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa de Mato Grosso (FAPEMAT) and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for the financial support. Thanks to Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuárina - Agrossilvipostoril (EMBRAPA) for the logistic support for the conduction of this work and to Luélyn Reuse Albiero for helping in the collection of the specimens.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Brazilian Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Mato Grosso (FAPEMAT) [grant number 63398/2012] and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) [grant number 158855/2015-9].